‘Anatomy Of A Fall’: Read The Screenplay For Justine Triet’s Murder Mystery That Won Cannes’ Palme d’Or
05.12.2023 - 17:31
/ deadline.com
Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the year’s most talked-about scripts continues with Neon’s murder mystery Anatomy of a Fall. The Cannes Palme d’Or winner from French filmmaker Justine Triet (only the third woman ever to take that top prize) is co-written by Triet and Arthur Harari. Last week, it scooped Best International Feature and Best Screenplay at the Gotham Awards.
Anatomy of a Fall follows Sandra (Sandra Hüller), a German writer; her French husband Samuel; and their 11-year-old son Daniel who live a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps. When Samuel is found dead in the snow below their chalet, the police question whether he committed suicide or was killed. Samuel’s death is treated as suspicious, presumed murder, and Sandra becomes the main suspect.
Deadline’s review called the film “a cerebral smash” and “a ferociously intelligent and deceptively playful drama that uses genre as a Trojan horse through which to tell the story of a normal family’s sudden implosion.”
The trial in the film “plays out almost like a script meeting, fleshing out plot points and motivations, deconstructing its twists and turns while we’re actually watching them unfold,” our review continued.
Here’s a clip of a pivotal confrontation between Hüller’s Sandra and Samuel Theis’ Samuel, alongside the script of the same scene.
Anatomy of a Fall, despite not being selected as France’s official submission for the International Feature Oscar, has done well in its home market, grossing more than $9.7 million, while in the U.S. it is at $3.5M via its Neon release. It will be competing for Oscar nominations in Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and Lead Actress for Hüller.
Of writing for Hüller, Triet told Deadline